After a long day’s work in a big wood, making hurdles for trenches, I came back rather tired with the expectation of the parcel you told me to look out for.

Lo! what a pleasure indeed to find it when I returned, just in time for a comfy luxurious Sunday tea;I washed my sweaty hands, wood stained through chopping, & then took the parcel into a neighbouring field & there I did enjoy the things – and so fulfilled your wish.

You remembered it seemed, that I love those ginger cakes with icing on top.Are they any dearer now?Bates* used to have them for lunch & send me to Pathesons (5) for them. Many thanks for the favourite chocolates& the very acceptable and ‘suitable’ lime juice pastilles; both Dodger & you still remember what I like inconfectionery.

So also the DUCKY eggswhich I am keeping to enjoy for tomorrow’s breakfast.After a thirsty daythePineapple chunkswere delicious. Thank you for the notepaper. Could you send some envelopeswith the next lot?

Now, dear Mum, the thought of those sketches in Fragments of France (6) more particularly thewording underneath,did enter my mind asvulgar. Lieut Sanger*told me he (Bairnsfather) had been libelled for one of his sketches.

Sniper Atkins: A.H.Hibbett. May 1916.

I do hope you will not think my pictures, illustrating that poem of mine, are vulgar also,but mine are chiefly originals.

You will recognise one or two of them as copies from Fragments of France.One of theSnipershad it sent to him. The features in my pictures are similar to Bairnsfather’s. What do you think of the verses?I wrote to Miss Bore* last night & sent her a copy.

I had two lovely letters from Miss K.E. Brookes*fromMalvern & today the parcel of cigarettes, (which were from Samudas(7) & first intended for me & which Miss Brookes said had been returned to her, for what reason she did not say)came with your parcels & were readdressed to Sydney and I had his lot. Miss Brookes sent me a PC of Malvern also;they are doing their bit well I think.

Yes I ‘compris’ your meaning of the amusing display of swank and ‘offishness’. Do you read the texts at the top of my letters? – see what I have written about the ‘Proud’ in today’s Psalms.

Empire Day generally turns out sunny. We had it sunny too.You were all alone you said, – see that part of the Gospel. I particularly thought of you when I read it & the text has been mine before the war & since.

I was very, very pleased indeed to hear that Sydney got his birthday parcelson the very day.I have written twice since he left me. Once on his birthday & one previous, which I hoped he would get on the day. Do you know Mum, between we selves, I think the reason Sydney has gone in for the Course of Armoury (8) (and in hopes to be an Armoury Sergeant)is to get out of the way of these new draft officers. But excepting Lieut Sanger*of course, who wished he had Sydney as his Platoon Sergeant. Sanger is over us now – 2 Platoon.I remembered you to him & he often asks me concerning you both.

I had a nice long letter from Auntie (Pattie) about Military Sunday (9). She said she could not help,with others, feeling sad at the sight of so many soldiers – not so much of those particular soldiers, but it reminded her of the War.

French Rats, Rat Catcher & dog. WW1.

There are not so many rats in this barn, why I can’t say. I have not seen one yet. The sketch I drew of ‘A night attack repulsed’is typicalof a usual night’s rest in the last barns previous to these.

<www sparticus-educational.com>

Oh Auntie doesn’t know yet that Ida is away doing farm work& she said how pleased matters turned out for Basil, he could go out with Ida. So is Basil full up with Wednesday afternoons now like Sydney & I were?Does he go firing at Tame Valley Range? (10).

You can write long letters Mummy but do they interfere with your ‘business’?Yes I told you in my last that the (cooker)refill arrived safely.Apparently you did not get my last Sunday greenletter before Wednesday. You would get it on Thursday I guess rightly eh?

How queer that you should be thinking of the same subject as I have been thinking about this last week & today even.No I have not a stripe yet, I still class as a ‘Tommy’.

The Soldier’s Friend. Pearl Plate Paste.

You need not send me any money thank you very muchMummy. I should only spend it on things which you could send me inparcels, for instance I want some‘Soldier’s Friend’a kind of ‘Perka’(sic) (11), only in tins, for brightening my buttons.

I will close now with my Best Love to all. B.

PS I saw Ball* yesterday morning since his return from Leave. He told me he met a ‘Lady’ in Lichfield & that he went intoFather’s Office (12). I offered him a few chocolates at tea time.I guess your ear would burn at tea time for I guess we were, both sides of the water,enjoying a niceSunday’s tea.

God bless you all. Bertie.

************************

ELIZABETH HIBBETT WEBB

Both Serjeant Sydney & Bertie Hibbett, still a ‘Tommy’, had yet to hear about their application for Commission in 1/5th & 3/5th South Staffords, respectively. It appears the ‘new draft of officers’ displayed ‘swank and ‘offishness‘ – a proud lot, not to be compared with those who came out with the Staffords in 1914. From this letter we learn that my father was worried his Mother might think his ‘Sniper Atkins’ ‘vulgar’. Also that Ida’s new voluntary work was in the Women’s Land Army, a decision she had kept from her Mother.

(2) Psalms for 28th Day, Evening Prayer (Book of Common Prayer)are again applied by Pte Bertie to comfort his family & make sense of his life. (3) I am not alone/ the Father loveth you:Gospel of John, 16.32.

(4) Empire Day: celebration of British, Empire 24th May 1904 -1958. Inspired by Earl Meath (friend of Baden Powell). To remind children that ‘They formed part of the British Empire, and that they might think with others in lands across the sea, what it meant to be sons and daughters of such a glorious Empire.”, and that “The strength of the Empire depended upon them, and they must never forget it.” <http://www.historic-uk.com&gt;

(9) Military Sunday: national Fund Raising Day for Soldiers? (10) Tame Valley: South of Tamworth on Staffordshire/Warwickshire border. Firing Range for Army/ O.T.C. Queen Mary’s School Walsall. (11) ‘Perka‘ text unclear/ could be ‘Perika‘/ brand name for cleaning polish?

Post Card: New Town Hall, Walsall 1905.

(12) Town Hall, Walsall.1905.Arthur Hibbett’sEducation Office was at the back of the building to the left I think.

The WW1 Letters and Drawings of Private Bertie Hibbett, 1/5th South Staffordshire Regiment, to his family in Walsall, will be posted again, one hundred years on, from August 1914 to November 1918, by his daughter Elizabeth Hibbett Webb. The first posting will be the Recruitment Postcard sent by Queen Mary's Grammar School Headmaster to the Hibbett family on holiday in Abergele, Wales.